On December 3rd, Berkeley Law's Office of Admission and La Raza Association hosted its first-ever Latinx Family Dinner in Los Angeles for prospective Latinx student applicants to Berkeley Law. Joined by Latinx alumni, representatives from the admissions office, and current Raza students, prospective students had the opportunity to engage with Berkeley Law and ask questions about the application process and student life. The event was a huge success! Many applicants were able to attend and build connections with La Raza Association on campus but also with Latinx professionals. We are excited to continue this new tradition and host more Family dinners such as these in the future. We also look forward to expanding into new cities. More to come on this so stay tuned!
Cruz Reynoso Committee
The Cruz Reynoso Gala 2020 planning is underway! At our first meeting, the Committee of 1L, 2L, and 3L La Raza students (and one undergraduate bear) decided on our theme for this year: Latinx Excellence: La Lucha Por la Justicia! We are also in the process of scoping out this year’s speaker! We are so excited to fundraise even more money this year to support Latinx law students who pursue public interest work. Cruz Reynoso scholarship recipients last year used the fellowship to pay for rent, food, and allowed them to do work they were truly passionate about. If you are interested in attending the event or sponsoring, please reach out to the Cruz Reynoso Gala Co-Chairs Karla Maradiaga, karla.maradiaga@berkeley.eduor Rosa Hernandez rosahernandez32@berkeley.edu.
Cross-Affinity Group BBQ
In October, La Raza and LSAD co-hosted a cross-affinity BBQ where students from all affinity groups were invited to attend. Alongside Oakland’s beautiful Lake Merritt on a sunny Saturday afternoon, students from various backgrounds enjoyed hot dogs, hamburgers (including veggie burgers) and music. Having spaces and events outside academics and networking are important to La Raza. In these events we aim to build strong social bonds to assure that students feel a sense of community within the law school and the legal world generally (spaces that can feel alienating to various affinity groups).
Womxn's Potluck Brunch
At the Lawtina brunch, Marcela graciously hosted us at her home in Lafayette. There was a beautiful array of bagels, coffee, scrambled eggs, pastries, and bacon. Araceli from the National Immigration Law Center and Judge Gonzalez-Rogers from the Norther District of California joined us in an intimate conversation about what it means to be Latina in the law. We talked about the importance of being able to talk to someone who holds different views than you, no matter what your views are. We also talked about ways the bridge the divide between public interest students and big law students, and what healthy relationships between big law and public interest lawyers can look like.
Dia de los Muertos
Day of the Dead originated several thousand years ago with the Aztec, Toltec, and other Nahua people, celebrate the life of and respectfully mourn the dead. For our culture, death is a natural phase in life’s long continuum. The dead are still members of the community, kept alive in memory and spirit—and during Día de los Muertos, they temporarily returned to Earth.
The centerpiece of the celebration is an altar, or ofrenda. These altars are meant to welcome spirits back to the realm of the living. Raza took on the task of creating an apagar to be it up on the centennial lobby of the law school to celebrate Dia de Los muertos October 31st - November 2nd.
Third General Meeting
At our third general meeting we reviewed upcoming events and made a very big announcement. This year the co-chairs and treasurer worked really hard to raise enough funds to take the whole organization on a retreat! We are planning to go some time in February and can’t wait to start planning. We also celebrated our November and December babies and we spent the rest of time playing fishbowl!
Know Your Rights Screening
On Tuesday evening of October 16, Kiki Tapiero from Berkeley Immigration Group and La Raza, and Sam Hamilton, from Berkeley Law's chapter of National Lawyers' Guild, facilitated a know your rights workshop at the multicultural community center. The first half of the presentation consisted of watching videos created by the NLG and discussing it, and the second half of the presentation was moderated by Hamid Yazdah Panah and Ana Rodriguez. They helped answer questions and present about the importance of rapid response. One of the most important take-aways from the presentation was to call the hotline before sharing anything about ICE raids on social media, so that you don't create false panics in the community.
Renato Puga Memorial Scholarship Ceremony
On Monday night, we celebrated the first two recipients of the The Renato Puga Garcia Memorial Scholarship, Elizabeth Lee and Maribel Garcia Ochoa, and remembered our dear friend and colleague Renato. We ate delicious enchiladas and heard from Professor Hurley, Professor Haney Lopez, and an alumni who knew Renato, Pedro Viramontes. We laughed and cried over our memories of our dear friend, but we also celebrated the accomplishments of the two recipients and their past, present, and future contributions to the Latinx communities.
The scholarship was started in late 2017 by La Raza Law Students Association and La Raza Law Journal at Berkeley Law in honor of our friend Renato, who was an active member of both organizations. Renato was born In Morelia, Mexico and received his Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Butler University. During law school, he was also captain of the Boalt Hall Soccer Club and a summer associate for Cooley, LLP in San Diego. Renato was an exceptional student but most importantly he was deeply committed to the Latinx community. Through this scholarship, we hope to continue Renato’s legacy and commitment to the Latinx community, but we also aim to provide support to Latinx students and ensure their success in law school.
If you would like to help contribute to the scholarship, you can venom donations @RenatoPG_Scholarship
Any contributions will be greatly appreciated.
Self Care & Community Tips with Fernando Flores
Fernando Flores spoke at a lunch talk event at Berkeley Law on 9/25 to give us some insight on how to live a healthy life in law school and as a lawyer. He shared with us his background, and how after practicing law for over 10 years, he founded iMATER NOW to support attorneys in nurturing their 6 spheres of well-being: emotional, physical, occupational, spiritual, intellectual, and social. We must tend to these every day, just like we groom ourselves every morning. We did an activity where we shared our morning routines, and he said we should add a one minute activity to our routine every day where we say three things that we are grateful for. He told us that his secret power for well-being is GPA: Grit, Positivity, and Appreciation. Finally, Fernando said that the most important thing is to have faith in yourself.
MALDEF Voting Rights Event
The current administration shows us how important it is for Latinx to show up and vote for leaders that will represent and fight for the Latinx community. The 2020 Census has a citizenship question which will negatively impact Latinx participation. Latinx communities will fear answering the census will lead to deportation and will skip the census altogether. Census data direclty affects the number of representatives a state has, this census will disempower Latinx voters. The La Raza Law Students Association co-sponsored a talk with Tanya Pellegrini about Latinx voting right and the work that MALDEF does to protect them- in particular, suing the current administration about the citizenship question. This talk helped empower students and become aware of the role of lawyers in protecting Latinx voting rights.
Meet Your 1L Professors Mixer
The beginning of 1L can be daunting. It's exciting, confusing and potentially a little scary. To ease the transition, our Raza Board hosted a social so the Raza Class of 2021 could meet its 1L professors in a low-key environment. Big shout-out to all the professors that took time out of their schedules to meet their Raza students. Another shout-out to the class of 2021 who took time out of reading and briefing to meet their profs. This is the beginning of another great semester. More events to come- stay tuned.